“Parim, lets put that load of raktajino beans in that section over there!” Elliot pointed to his left. “We’re not supposed to deliver that for another two weeks.”

Parim grabbed a hover lift and moved the pallet as requested. It was just another day in the cargo bay of the Heimdall. Stuff needed to be moved, space had to be created for incoming inventory, and pallets needed to be prepared for delivery. With their current contract pushing the ship hard though, there was a little extra work to do making sure that everything was prepared for delivery in one of the shuttles, which were coming in and out as fast as they could.

Elliot would have been looking forward to going home for the day, but he knew that he had a pile of homework waiting for him, and with Dad gone, helping pilot the delivery shuttles, he was on his own for dinner, at the mercy of the ship’s cook.

Kenai moved past Elliot’s peripheral vision. His dog typically spent the day with him, and while they might be working near some sensitive cargo, that was no reason to change habits. He finished making his notes in the logs, cursing under his breath for having to do it now that Paul had told his dad that he wasn’t. “Stupid… tattletale!” Elliot said quietly, still afraid to say anything worse aloud. The loud slurping of Kenai licking something pulled him out of his notes. The dog was just lapping up a puddle of water under one of the cryotubes. He went back to his notes and then snapped his head back up. “What the heck?” He raced over to the tube and saw that water was dripping off the bottom. He looked around quickly and realized… it was melting.

“Parim! Get Paul in here now!”

Elliot shooed the dog away from the area and tried to figure out where the water was coming from. On top of the tube, a layer of frost had developed. As he rubbed the frost away, Elliot realized it was becoming more and more transparent as it melted. He squinted to see what lay beneath the ice and froze when he realized what it was he was looking at. A human Face. “Oh ****."

“Close the hatch Trish! We need to get the heck outa here!” The latest delivery was finished and Marcus fired the engines as soon as the hatch was sealed. Things around the Heimdall had been crazy, and he had personally had to help out with the delivery runs aboard the auxiliary vessels. The pilots and crews were overworked, but the shuttles still had to run. K’Roth had even taken a run a day back. The work was tireless, but once these cryotubes were dropped and the final payment came in, it would all be worth it. This job alone was going to pay for many of the major upgrades and maintenance jobs around the Heimdall that had been waiting for money to be available. The delivery shuttle had just cleared the space station’s controlled space when the communications panel lit up with a priority 1 call from the Heimdall. Marcus opened the channel, hoping for the best, but preparing himself for the worst. Paul Stasik’s face came on screen, and his face was grim.

“Marcus, we have a problem. A big problem. Get back as fast as you can.” Marcus knew something was badly wrong. There wasn’t much that would bother Paul this much. The old man was hard to break, so him admitting that there was a “big” problem was worrying indeed. “What’s the matter Paul? What happened?” Paul tapped a finger on the desk he was sitting at before answering. “One of those tubes defrosted. But that isn’t the bad part. There was a man inside Marcus. And I’m willing to bet that all of these damned tubes contain similar payloads. We are carrying human cargo for the Federation.”

Marcus’ face went ashen and then grew dark. “Somebody has a lot of explaining to do. We will be back in five hours. Seal that area off and get Cat to the defrosted tube. Keep the man alive, but keep him asleep until I get there. Marcus out.”

Catrina had been bored, extremely bored. It didn’t matter how much work the rest of the crew had, she had to sit around and wait to see if any injuries came up. She had dealt with the kitchen sending out undercooked food, giving a few people stomach aches. But, that had been the biggest issue she’d come across.

That was, until, she got a frantic message from Paul asking her to come down to look at one of the cryotubes, something about a man inside. Swearing under her breath, Cat grabbed a medkit, as well as a few other things, and headed down there.

The one thing that pushed her away from Starfleet was that, at least in her eyes, they didn’t always tell the whole truth. People inside the tubes? Of course it wasn’t as simple as they made it out to be.

Reaching the area, which had quite a bit of water on the floor, Cat looked at what everyone had been talking about. “Damnit…” She checked the readings on the tube and shook her head. “We can’t keep him in there.”

She then looked to Paul. “Orders to keep him asleep I’d bet, right? Fine, let’s get him out of that tube and into the infirmary. I’ll keep him...whoever he is...sedated. Check the other cryotubes,” she said as she quickly typed up a few things on a PADD, handing it over. “Make sure the settings match this. If not, we’re going to have a lot more issues than just one of these things malfunctioning.”

Calling down a few more of her medical team, who seemed nervous about doing what they were told in that moment, they started work on getting the man out of the cryotube and hopefully onto the waiting stretcher that was there.

The five hours of near emergency warp speed finally paid off when the Cargo shuttle touched down in the auxiliary bay. Paul probably wouldn't be happy about the excess strain on the shuttle, but this was a problem that necessitated the rush. Marcus quickly rushed to the cargo hold where the tubes were at and took in the sight of the small medical team rushing around the tubes, especially one, which he rightly assumed was the defroster.

The tube had been unsealed and opened by this time and Marcus guessed that the man was currently in the sick bay. The puddle around the tube was being mopped up as he watched. All of this only served to stoke his frustration and head knocking desires further. He turned away and went off to find Paul.

Marcus eventually found the man in the engine room, tinkering away at something in a conduit. After getting the engineer's attention, Marcus asked for a rundown of what had happened while he was away. "Well, things were going just fine until that dog of your son's started licking up water by that tube. Elliot called me over immediately and told me what happened. He was all up in a tizzy. As soon as I got a look at what was inside I got everyone out of there and called you. I did what you told me too. I got Cat over to the tube so she could take care of the man, she is keeping him under still, and started cleanup. Only other problem is that I broke my pry bar getting that damned pod open. It had some sort of encrypted lock on it that I couldn't get through so I busted it open. Had to really, before the guy woke up. I've been down here working ever since then."

Marcus fought down a scowl. "Somebody is going to have a lot of explaining to do, and they better give straight answers. This was a Starfleet contract! Why the Hell would we be moving around a load of ice cube people for Starfleet?! One thing is for sure. I intend on finding out."

Marcus turned to walk away but was stopped by Paul. "Oh and Marcus, Cat wants to talk to you. She doesn't seem happy."

Marcus could only take a deep breath and sigh. "Glorious." As he walked away, Marcus swore he heard Paul chuckling behind him.

Cat had been busy writing up a report and watching the vital signs of their new guest. She could only hope that the others had done what she asked and reset all the settings on the cryotubes. Whoever this person was that was now thawed and behind a forcefield in sickbay, Starfleet was going to have to answer questions.

She’d heard that the others were back, and knew that Paul was supposed to send Marcus her way. To say that she was going to give him a piece of her mind was an understatement. It wasn’t more than a few minutes later that he appeared through the door. Pulling herself up from her desk and checking the vitals of the man one more time, she stood in front of Marcus, arms crossed, an angry look on her face.

“I’m guessing you had no idea that we were taking people to wherever it was that Starfleet is deciding to send us? This is why I got away from them, Marcus. Because of things like this, secrets. What is going on here?!”

Marcus sighed deeply. "I'm sorry Cat, I really am. But we took this deal with the strictest of rules attached for security. No one else around had the security credentials to know this load even existed, let alone to actually move it. No, I didn't know what was in the tubes. That was how it had to be. Now that I know what they are though, I will be knocking heads. I do not condone trafficking. I am diverting the ship to the nearest starbase and getting Starfleet over here to take their cargo back. I am not moving it any further. I won't betray my own morals by finishing the job." Marcus schooled his face and looked over to the patient. I'm glad you could keep him alive. I may have no intention of waking these people up, but I also have no intentions of killing them either. All I can say is to hold things together until we get to the Starbase. Then you can rant and rave at a Starfleet inspector." Marcus let a wry grin escape. "And we all know how well you are at getting through to a stubborn head."

Cat stood there with her arms crossed, listening to Marcus. She was on the edge of exploding, but knew that it wasn’t Marcus’ fault they were in this situation. He wouldn’t have done it had he known it was human trafficking. Lowering her arms with a sigh, she still glared at him.

“I know, I know. Not your fault, but I needed to vent at someone. You have no idea how glad I am to hear that we’ll be stopping at the next starbase. Starfleet has heard my wrath before, I don’t think they’ll be too keen on hearing it again. But then again, maybe my reputation hasn’t hit this far out yet. They’ll be in for a rude awakening.”

She went back to standing over the patient after she lowered the force field, taking closer scans.

“You owe me, Marcus. Days off or something, I don’t care what. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I won’t be able to leave until we drop this guy off, and I’ll be sleeping in my office. I’m not leaving this to any of the other medical officers, not this time.”

Paul grumbled as he took the PADD. He was a mechanic not a medic. He knew better than to say too much out loud though. This situation called for a whole lot more than just the usual. There were people in these tubes, he needed to make sure they stayed alive.

He memorized the readings Cat had given him and started running a medical tricorder over all of the tubes.